Perfect Storm
by AndiAi
Summary: Life is unexpected, and Sora will figure out his as time goes, discovering who he is, and what it means to be so madly in love with someone that it hurts. Rated M for a reason. Pairing Undecided.
1. Chapter 1

A:N/ This Story, is going to be based entirely off of one song. I'm kind of going for a different feel in my stories more, realistic, dark I guess you could say. Oh yes, I was once CloudyBoy, but in the years I feel that I have out-grown the name. So a name that I feel more connected with was in order, sorry for any confusion to my readers. ALSO, the name is subject to change, depending on how the story progresses. So, xD. Anyway on with the story.

The wind was crisp, and the chill bit at my skin as I walked down the street toward the bright neon green light that represented my destination. "Coffee…" I groaned quietly to myself as I walked in slow careful steps toward the sign. I ran my fingers through my spiky brown hair and bit my lip, shivering lightly when the cold air found its way up my sleeve. I stopped at the corner of Kalm Road and Luca Street looking both ways before bolting across the road. I looked up at the sky, a now fiery orange as the sun had begun to set and darkness had taken over the other half of the sky.

"Sora!" Someone yelled, scaring me out of my skin. I flinched and looked backward sighing in relief seeing it was only Yuffie, the girl that had lived next door to me all of my life. She was about my height, with short black hair and bright green eyes.

"God Yuffie!" I rolled my eyes with a small smile, "scare the hell out of me, why don't you."

She grinned and ruffled her hair. "I'm sorry!" She said quickly, her eyes wide.

I smiled and nudged her shoulder lightly with my fist, then turned back to walking toward the convenience store that has my beloved coffee. "You coming?" I asked when I noticed she wasn't following. She laughed loudly and quickly started running to catch up.

"Of course!" She said in a giggly voice. The rest of the walk was spent in silence, both of us staring up at the sky, as the orange faded to pink, and the pink to black, then the stars filled the sky. When I reached the store I didn't go in, I just stared up at the sky as it changed, smiling to myself. Sometimes the simplest things in life, they were what made me the happiest.

I shook my head and turned to face the store, walking in and smiling as the warmth over-took the cold that I had become sort of used to. Yuffie followed behind me silently and I turned back and grinned at her, her face broke out into a huge smile in return. "Go get yourself some hot chocolate." I said still grinning.

"You don't have to..." She started

"I want to." I said quickly, cutting her off. I smiled as she bowed out and went to go get her hot chocolate from the dispenser. I then followed, grabbing a coffee pot off the heater and a foam cup,pouring it in carefully, then grabbed a creamer, pouring the cream into the cup with the coffee. I reached across the little isle and grabbed a stirring straw and mixed it slowly making sure all of the cream was distributed evenly, then put a lid over it, locking it into place and taking a small sip. The warmth passed over my lips and I tasted the bittersweet that was one of my favorite things in the world.

I walked up to the counter and pointed to Yuffie and I, and the cashier nodded, ringing up the prices of the cups we had grabbed and I handed over a five dollar bill offering a warm smile to the woman, she smiled back and handed me my change. "Have a nice evening." She said sweetly.

I smiled. "Thank you, you too." I said smiling happily then turned around and walked toward the door, back into the cool night air. I heard the bell above the door ring as Yuffie followed me at a brisk pace. I giggled quietly and stopped suddenly, causing her to bump into me. She burst into a fit of laughter and gently smacked me in the back of my head. I grinned and turned to her. "Hey, didn't your mom ever teach you to keep your hands and feet to yourself?!" I asked in a mocking tone.

She stuck her tongue out at me and laughed so hard that she had to grip her stomach. "Hah! Didn't you ever learn to keep your pace in line during elementary school?" I smirked and grabbed her shirt dragging her along the way back to the house, occasionally stopping to take sips of the coffee and to rest, and pick on each other some more. When I got home I hugged her, and watched her to make sure she got into her house safely, then walked to my doorstep, grabbing the keys from my front pocket and unlocking the door.

The door opened with a creak that, in itself, seemed like was sighing from all the labor it had been through, in all the years it had been there, all the abuse that my siblings and friends had put it through that would make me weak too. I smiled at the thoughts, hanging my keys on the hook that hung next to the door, then quickly turned the deadbolt, and turned to dredge up the stairs running my fingers along the wall in my daze, and slowly made my way to my room. I sat the coffee on my desk and sat at the foot of my bed staring at the floor. I yawned and lay back in the bed, and even though I had just drank coffee, I drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

EndNote: Thank you jobelle516 for Beta Reading this! And To the readers, I apologize for the short chapter, the next one will be longer! Anyway, reviews are always appreciated. Constructive Criticism is welcome, Flames… not so much. Signing off!

~Andy


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey! Okay so it has been a few months since I posted chapter one, but I got really busy. I have 3/4 chapters already written for this, and will be updating weekly. Hope you enjoy. ALSO Big thanks to jobelle516 for beta reading this and doing my corrections. I owe the quality of this to you 3.

Chapter 2.

I stared at the building with disdain coursing through my body. How I despised this time of the year. It may have been my senior year, but I was not happy with the fact that I had nine more months of attending this place that I liked to think of as hell. I closed my eyes and took my first unwilling steps toward the school building, sighing to myself. I thought of how each step toward the doors was like surrendering myself over to some inhuman torture that would somehow leave me scarred, this though caused a huge smile to cross my face and I couldn't help but to chuckle at my strong hate for this place. I grabbed the door handle just in time to avoid being toppled over by Rikku – Yuffie's cousin – who oddly acted just like her, though maybe that wasn't as odd as it seemed at first thought, more than likely they were raised together and the excitement can be quite contagious.

"SORA!" Rikku practically screamed into my ear, as she pulled me into a death lock hug. I glanced her over once she released me and the difference from her and the past few weeks was definitely there. Instead of the yellow bikini top and short skirt she donned for the summer time, she was wearing bright yellow skinny jeans with a white fade in the middle, that kind of made them look awesome, a pretty magenta tank top that read "OMG!" in white print, and of course her normal bright white hi-tops.

"Rikku," I said with the grin plastered across my face still, "you act like you haven't seen me in months." I said matter-of-factly and grinned even wider. "When in reality, we just saw each other yesterday.

She giggled a bit in her high pitched squeal and said "Your point being? You act like it's not okay for me to be excited to see one of my best friends." She put on her faux puppy dog look and blinked rapidly, I shook my head and continued into the school.

"Come on, I've got to get my locker assignment." I said, and she tilted her head, I answered her question before she could ask. "I skipped orientation to get some coffee last night." It never failed, her trademark laugh echoed through the hall at my blatant disregard for the school. As if coffee was more important than going to get my school schedule and locker assignment, but in my book, it honestly was.

My gaze directed toward the front office and mentally I cringed at the blankness of the walls. No decorations, just white paint that had begun to fade, due to the lack of maintenance. I closed my eyes for a second to picture something that was a lot more beautiful than faded white paint and hurried toward the door. The office was a bit more pleasant, probably because the secretaries refused to sit in a prison all day, it was painted a dull orange, one of the colors our school's mascot sported and was filled with flowers. The room smelled like nature, and I honestly wouldn't have minded spending my entire day there. I closed the door gently so that it didn't slam and made my way to the desk, as slowly as possible.

The secretary looked at me and brought a big fake smile across her plump face, that actually made me want to slap it off her. "Hi, my name is Sora Nomura, and I wasn't able to make it to orientation last night, I need my schedule and locker assignment." I said with a polite smile, and ruffled my brown spikes out of my face.

"Student I.D.?" She said in a loud nasally voice that I wouldn't want to attempt to hold a meaningful conversation with, because I would get really annoyed really fast. I nodded and dug into my front jeans pocket, snatching up my wallet and flashing my student I.D. She went to the "N" file and looked through the names until she came across mine, pulling out my folder and handing it to me. "Since you missed orientation last night, you need to have all that paperwork turned in by tomorrow. If you need anything else, you know where the office is, now get to class."

I nodded and turned quickly, hurrying out of the only bright place in the school and headed straight for the first class on my schedule. "Oh great," I scoffed to myself. "Chemistry with Professor Hojo, the nut job." I scrunched my nose unhappily and headed for the class, without a bit of excitement. This had been my third year in a row in one of his science classes, and I honestly had no hope for it this year, he made the curriculum almost impossible for the average high school student to pass. I would have much rather had Professor. Crescent, because her curriculum is just as informative covering all the same bases, but in a way that is much easier to understand.

I walked in slow, deliberate steps, on the way to his class, letting my imagination run wild as I painted pictures on the walls of my mind, of how I wanted this year to go. Senior year would hopefully be at least a decent year, minus Nut Job's class. I smirked to myself and walked through the door that led to his lab area, the smell of rotten eggs immediately invaded my senses, causing every picture I had envisioned to smear out and run down the drain in a rainbow swirl, my first reaction was to gag a bit and cover my nose and mouth, hurrying to my seat so that I could use both hands to do this. My eye twitched and I looked toward the lab area, Hojo was messing around with sulfur and its chemical reactions. "Oh great…" I thought, "First day and he's already doing borderline dangerous experiments, next thing you know, he'll be blowing up the lab." I glared in his general direction and waited for the smell to dissipate.

The rest of the class was him introducing himself, and the class staring at each other in uncertainty of how he runs things. I chuckled softly to myself, because I knew exactly how this year was going to be, with personal experience, and with some of the stories my cousin Cloud had told me about his experiences in the class. This year, this class was going to be a nightmare, and Ihoped, no prayed that the rest of my teachers would be at least somewhat saner.

The coolness of the door on my locker against the palm of my hand snapped me out of my thoughts, and I entered the combination quickly, shoving the book Hojo had assigned to me, slammed the door and walking toward room 405 for English 12. I looked around quickly to see if there was anyone I knew, I sighed when there was no one, of course there wasn't anyone here today, it was only the first day, most of the people that I considered close never came on the first day, the scatter in on the second or third day, and act like they didn't miss anything. Then again, if I didn't hate staying home, I would probably do the same. I hurried onto my next class, and grinned when the English 12 TBA turned out to be Ms. Farron. She was a great teacher, I had her my ninth grade year, and she was very helpful with the class, but was very stern and could be harsh when it came to punishing her students. We all learned quickly not to misjudge her kindness for weakness.

The rest of the day flowed quickly and luckily there wasn't any homework, not even from Hojo. I soon found myself at my front door wearing an exhausted look and a lot of sweat pouring down my face from the walk home. What had started out as a cool morning, had turned into a day that felt like Ifrit had decided to visit. I jammed the key into the keyhole and unlocked the door rapidly, practically sprinting into the cool air conditioned house, sighing in relief when the cool air hit my face. I pulled the key out and shut the door heading toward the living room to crash on the couch where I would lay until my parents got home from work. I pulled my knees into my chest, closing my eyes listening to nothing but the dull rumble of the air conditioner doing its work. The sound eventually lulled me into a deep, but at the same time restless sleep.

I was awoken by the front door slamming viciously, the sound of my own scream from the sudden noise caused the person responsible to break into a belly aching laughter. I scowled and in a sleepy stupor, I walked toward the front door and the source of the laughter, my older brother Squall. I glared at him and he smirked at me. Though, with how rare a laugh from this guy was, maybe glaring at him wasn't such a good idea. "Must be a special occasion, with you laughing and all." I quipped.

He stifled his laughter and nodded. "Yeah, hearing my younger brother scream like a little girl, that is a very special occasion." He said with his infamous smirk and patronizing glare, and then proceeded to ruffle my hair. I quickly ran my fingers through my hair fixing any damage to it he may have caused. "Where's mom and dad?" he questioned, I answered with a shrug and looked toward the clock. They were late, about an hour or so, which was unusual for them.

"Maybe they were asked to stay overtime or something." I said mostly to myself, and checked my cell phone to see if there were any messages or missed calls from them, there were none, so I shrugged it off and turned back to face Squall. "Looks like we're on our own tonight." I said with a grin plastered across my face. He opened the door again and we left, going to our favorite restaurant.

Ever since Squall had gotten a job and car, when mom and dad weren't around we would head out to Reno's Grille. Mom and Dad had taken us there on special nights for as long as we could remember. Reno was Dad's best friend, they had been friends since they were in diapers. I jumped into his car and buckled my seat belt, and then the in the next moment the car was roaring to life and I was watching the houses go by in a blur, I closed my eyes and rolled down the window, leaning my head against the frame of the door, letting the wind hit my face gently and I let my signature grin creep across my face. I always loved the feeling of the wind when I was in the car, it felt like someone running their fingers through my hair, and messing with it, the warmth of the sun on your cheeks, even when it's just about to set. I opened my eyes when the familiar smell of the Grille surrounded me, I knew we were close to it, only to be horrified by the scene in front of me.

There had been an accident that much I could tell, and the smell of the gasoline that leaked from the motor was an indicator of how bad it actually was. I looked over at Squall who had screeched to an immediate halt, his face was twisted in what seemed to be horror. My body lurched forward in time with the abrupt stop and then looked back over to the accident. The smell almost gagged me, but what really got to me was the blood leaking from the car that was overturned. It took me a few minutes to process the whole scene, and when I had the first thing that became prominent was that the overturned car looked almost familiar in some way. It hit me then, the car, was my parent's car. There was no time for warning, my stomach turned and I gagged, I turned out the window spilling the contents of my stomach. When there was nothing left to heave, I began to sob, because I knew, in that moment, by the wreckage that was in front of me, that there were no survivors.


	3. Chapter 3

Perfect storm Chapter 3:

A/N: AYE! It's me again with another chapter, I hope you guys like this one. Reviews would be much appreciated, I'll even take some flames, maybe that'll help me grow and stuffs.

The weeks that followed were both horrendous and painful. It was a pain that was almost unbearable, like a hot dagger being dragged down my back repeatedly, but these cuts went deeper than mere flesh wounds. These were mental, and emotional wounds that would possibly never heal correctly.

Losing your parents, is something that you don't ever fully recover from, because these are the people that are there from the very beginning. It's almost like losing an organ vital to the way you live, and when it's gone you have to change the way you live for the rest of your life. This whole thing seemed to be a big crazy nightmare, though it was a nightmare that I knew I would never wake from, and the knowledge of that made everything so much more frightening. Because of… everything, I had to miss the rest of the school week that followed the accident. I couldn't deal with everything that was going on, and I could barely perform everyday tasks, let alone going to school and putting on a happy face.

We had a small funeral, just the people that were closest to them were invited, and family of course. Though not many Nomura's were in travelling distance.

The week after, the idea of school was a little easier to process, maybe I knew that I would have to do it sooner or later and that the sooner it happened the easier it would be to move on with things. I guess getting back into the flow of things worked. Thanks to it being the first week, I didn't miss much homework and curriculum wise, just the introductory things that got us into the heavier stuff. I sighed as the teachers droned on and on about things that I didn't care about, watching the clock tick slowly toward the goal that was the end of the school day. I bit my lip and shook my head, forcing myself to look toward the lecture the teacher was giving, though I soon found myself concentrating so hard on trying to listen to what she was saying, the words had started to fade into the background. I growled under my breath to myself, my lack of being able to concentrate was actually starting to anger me.

"Sora?" Ms. Farron said in a questioning voice, effectively pulling me out of my rant.

"Yeah?" I said, even I could hear the uncertainty in my voice, and it was quite possibly obvious that I wasn't really paying much attention to what she was saying. I blinked again and looked up toward her.

"Can you stay after class? I have to talk to you about some of the things that you missed last week." She said politely and went on with the lecture she was giving, from the words that I got before I fell back into my thoughts, it was about the book that we would be covering over the next month.

The bell rang, and I stayed in my seat, sighing when the class cleared out and Ms. Farron made her way toward me with a concerned expression. I sighed, knowing exactly what this was about. "Sora, are you alright?" She asked in a mildly concerned voice. "I know you, you're an excellent student, and I have never seen you so unfocused in class before."

I nodded. "Yeah, I have been pretty unfocused, it seems like even when I try I can't concentrate on what any of my instructors are going over, and I know in the end this is going to hurt my grades, but I'm trying." I said in a hollow voice.

She nodded slowly. "I know how hard this must be. I lost my parents too, when I was very young, my father died around the same time I was born, and my mom got sick when I was 12 and passed away. I'm not saying our situations are the same, because I know they aren't, but I am saying that it'll get better." She offered a small, comforting smile, and I nodded.

I faked a small smile. "It'll get better." I said, my eyes starting to sting a bit. "I have to go, I'll be late for class." I said quickly standing up. "Thank you." And I was off, walking quickly to the door and making my way to my next class. The rest of the day was a blur, I forced myself to focus in the remainder of my classes, taking a many notes as I could. The end of the day came, and I was out the doors of the school so fast I probably made people's heads spin.

I felt ill, that was the best way to explain the grief. My whole body shook and I was literally on the verge of tears at the drop of a hat. If one thing went wrong, I had to stop myself from just breaking down. My stomach cramped at the thought of everything that had happened in the past week and my heart dropped all the way to my feet.

I opened the door to my home quickly and slammed it shut behind me, running quickly up the stairs toward my bedroom. I had been lucky in some aspects of this, I turned 18 a few weeks ago and wasn't required to move out, and my parents had left the house to my brother and I anyway. Squall was moving in to help keep the bills up while I was still in school, then he was going to move back out and live with his fiancé Rinoa. But until then she would be living in her apartment.

I plopped onto my bed and sprawled out across the blanket that was on top, pushing my backpack off of me and onto the floor. After lying there for about fifteen minutes, I sat up and sighed, grabbing my phone to check the multiple messages that had come through while I was walking home. My stomach churned when I read them all, Yuffie was on her way with Riku, Rikku, and Kairi. "Gods…" I grumbled to myself, "Knowing her this is going to be… fun." I whispered and jumped out of my bed, as I landed in the most unsteady way possible I heard knocks on the door and groaned, walking down the steps to answer it, as slowly as possible, as if my slowness would possibly make her go away. But she was too stubborn for that, she would wait around my house until I got home if I wasn't there.

I got to the door and the four of them were waiting there, Yuffie in her normal black t-shirt, jeans and converse outfit, while Kairi wore what looked like an anime school girl outfit. These two were always quite different, even though they looked and sounded alike. And Rikku was… Rikku, standing behind the two in one of her outrageously colorful outfits just wriggling about. Sometimes I swore she was on a constant sugar rush. And Riku was just standing back from everyone, being his normal cool self. I forced a smile and stepped to the side letting the quartet of people that I called my best friends in.

We had been a quintet since we were mere eight graders, always a tight group, mostly because we didn't trust a lot of people, especially as we went through high school. The group grew slightly in ninth grade, we had a lunch table of about eight people that year, but as the year went by the ones who had attached themselves to us simply faded off into the noise of the other world, either moving, or simply found themselves being a bit more distant from us than they previously were. But us five, we were the original five, and no matter how much one of us grew up, the others seemed to grow right along with them, and our differences had simply brought us together. At the thought of all this I cracked a smile, my first in about a week.

"Sora!" Rikku called out, practically pouncing on me. This caused my smile to widen a bit more, her excitement had always been a bit infectious, no matter how sad any one of us was, she managed to break through it and have everyone laughing in a matter of minutes.

"Rikku!" I mocked her, and hugged her tightly. It's funny, I had actually been dreading this a few seconds ago, but now I'm glad Yuffie had brought them over. I wish I would have done it myself the day that it happened instead of pushing them all away, maybe that would have made this whole thing a little easier. We all moved to my room, the normal place we went to, even though that wasn't really a necessity anymore, but some things become traditions among friends, and no matter how what happens those traditions don't break. I wonder if 50 years down the line, if we're all still together, if we'll all come to this room for our little meetings like this.

I was pulled away from my thoughts by Kairi piping up. "What have you been up to, ya lazy bum?" she said with a smile.

I shook my head. "Not a thing, being a lazy bum I suppose." I grinned and stuck my tongue out, she was the next to hug me, and we sat on my bed. We were quickly followed by the otherthree who all basically claimed their spots by jumping onto it all at once. When we were all settled we broke out into laughter. These meetings were called when we knew one of us was in some sort of trouble, I guess for the first time since I was about to fail my ninth grade science class, and my grade depended on my final exam, that person was me.

Riku smirked, punching my shoulder gently. "You're such a loser." He said still smirking.

"Me a loser? Nah, I think you got it reversed. You're the loser!" I quipped back at him with a grin that reached ear to ear. He and I had always had the strangest relationship, how two people could be so mean to each other and then proceed to hug it out with no problem, eluded even my mind. But it was a relationship that I wouldn't change for the world, because it was fun to be able to pick on someone and not have them be pissed about it.

The gathering continued when Rikku's high pitched giggle broke the silence, we all looked toward her and she pulled out a whole bunch of junk food. "Can the party start already? This awkwardness is starting to get to me." The whole group nodded, and Rikku pulled out a cd and practically sprinted over to my computer set up. The next thing I knew our mix CD was playing and Yuffie was pulling a bottle of green apple vodka out of her bag, along with some plastic red cups. She poured the first cup and handed it to me, I took it without hesitation and took the first sip, it was strong, but it was vodka. The first sip burned like hell going down, it smelled and felt like I had taken a sip of rubbing alcohol. I shrugged and quickly downed the rest of the cup. At that point, she had already poured everyone else's cups, and I reached for the bottle pouring my own.

"Gods Sora, slow down." Yuffie and Rikku both said at the same time, Yuffie giggled a little, and I shrugged again, taking a gulp out of the new cup. I was already starting to get the calming effect, I stretched a bit, and noticed that it felt like my limbs were going through water.

"I'm such a lightweight…" I muttered, apparently loud enough for the rest of them to hear, because the laughter that erupted from them was almost ear shattering, but I couldn't help giggle along with them, maybe it was the alcohol that was making me laugh like this, but I didn't care. I felt good, almost happy, for the first time in over a week, and I just wanted to enjoy it, even though my parents were dead, I was allowed a little fun… I'm sure that they didn't just want me to mope around for the rest of my life. Maybe this was a step to a bit of recovery, maybe this whole gathering here, is exactly what I needed. I mean, yeah they were dead, and that was sad, I was sad about it, and it probably always break my heart when it came to it, but I couldn't just… lay around the house, and fail school because of all this, I had to be stronger than that.

I took another drink from my cup, and my head was getting fuzzier by the minute, but I knew I would remember these thoughts, and that was enough.

A/N: Okay, Chapter 3 end. Thanks jobelle516 for being an amazing Beta-Reader and friend. Chapter 4 will be up next week, and number five is in progress! Please Review cx


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

I woke up to the sunlight breaking through the blinds, and I automatically covered my eyes, because my head was throbbing. I groaned gently and turned to look at my alarm clock, immediately hopping out of my bed when I realized I was going to be late to school. "Fuck!" I cursed under my breath, running to my closet to grab a quick change of clothes and to the bathroom sink to quickly wipe myself off. When had everyone gone home, because I sure as hell didn't remember them leaving. Though it was possible that I had fallen asleep and they decided to head to Yuffie's place, she did live walking distance from me. I grabbed my tooth brush, rushing through the process of brushing my teeth, and quickly gargled some water. I turned and practically sprinted back to my room while pulling my t-shirt over my head. I grabbed my backpack from the floor next to my bed and grabbed my flip flops from them and ran to my garage, slipping my bag over my shoulder as I ran. I hated driving to school because it was so close, but today was an emergency. I grabbed the keys from the hook next to the garage door and sprinted to my car, hopping in at record speed, then before I left, I checked my phone and groaned, because it was Saturday.

I got out of the car very slowly, because if I were to do things quickly, the anger that was oozing from my pores would be even more evident. I slowly, ever so slowly grabbed my keys out of the ignition, and closed the car door, quickly, walking to the house, I kicked off my flip flops and went to the kitchen sink for a glass of water. "Of course, I would be the idiot who gets ready for school thinking that he's late, on a Saturday." I muttered and checked my messages, still sipping water from the glass. Only a couple of messaged, all of them from Yuffie. They had all gone to her house last night, after I fell asleep, as I thought, but only because her little brother got sick and her mom had to work. The four of them had been at my house every night this week anyway, so a little bit of alone time was more of a relief than anything. Of course we hadn't drank every night they were here, Yuffie was only able to score the vodka because she had a friend who bought it and didn't want it. But the night we did drink, was so much fun, I don't think I've had that much fun since my sixteenth birthday when we went to an amusement park for the entire weekend. It was the best thing I had ever experienced up to that point.

I smiled looking back on it, my parents were so proud that they were able to afford that weekend, and they never stopped talking about how happy they were that I had so much fun doing it. This memory brought tears to my eye, though not sad ones, these were happy memories. I sighed and pushed myself off the counter, placing the now empty glass in the sink, and walked toward the refrigerator, pulling the door open and grabbing out the milk, plucking the cereal off the top of the fridge and closing the door silently. I hummed gently as I walked over to the cabinet that held all of the bowls, pulling one out and poured the cereal into the bowl, then the milk, I pulled the drawer out that contained the silverware, plucking a spoon from the spoon slot, and took a spoonful of the fruit loops in my bowl. My phone buzzed and I looked at it as I chomped on the cereal.

It was a text from Riku. "Hey." He said with a little smiley emoticon next to it.

I replied with. "Hey, what's up?" and took another chomp of my cereal, chewing it slowly. At that moment Squall walked in with his duffle bag.

"Hey you." He said with a smile on his face. "Same room as always?" He asked, trying to make conversation with me. I nodded and offered a small smile in return. He nodded and swiftly turned to go upstairs. Thing about Squall was, he was only ever talkative on rare days, and I was fine with that. It was going to make this living arrangement all that much easier, because he made himself scarce. Though, with him there was always Rinoa, and she was the talkative type. I rolled my eyes and sighed. How those two have survived together as long as they have, is a mystery to me. I heard his footsteps coming down the stairs and he walked into the kitchen sitting at the table with me.

I swallowed the bite I had just taken. "So how are things?" I said quietly.

He sighed and looked at me. "Things are… well they could definitely be better. This whole thing, it's turned my entire life upside down, not that moving back in bothers me, it's just Rinoa and I were set to move in together next month." My eyes widened, because I had never heard him speak so much in my entire life.

I blinked and proceeded to say, "Why don't you just move her in here with us? It's not like it will bother me, and that way you two can kind of start saving your money together toward a new place next year." I then proceeded to take another bite, because I had shocked myself at how mature and thought out my statement was. He looked at me in thought, and was apparently surprised himself at my maturity in this entire situation. I was handling things better than any normal person should be handling it. As I chewed, he seemed to be in thought about the idea that I had just come up with, he knew that in the long run that it might be the best idea as much as I did, because of monetary reasons mostly. Why pay bills in two places when every bill could be focused on the one place, both of them would be able to save toward a home of their own for after they were married, and still be able to go out with each other every once in a while.

"Good point." He said quietly standing up from his chair, and briskly walking toward the kitchen exit, I immediately heard him talking to Rinoa on his cell phone, and smiled a bit to myself. Yes, the house would be a little more crowded, but maybe it would feel a little more like home when it wasn't just squall and I all the time. My phone vibrated and I looked down to see that I had a text from Riku and Yuffie. I smiled to myself and went back to eating my cereal and texting.

By the time noon had come around, I had already made plans to go out with them, I ran up to my room and snatched a t-shirt from my clothes rack, along with a pair of jeans and some underwear. I sighed gently and grabbed my amplifying speaker for my phone. I put on my playlist, and ran into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. The was a slight thud from my phone and speaker as I laid it on the sink, the music filled the rest of the silence with all the emotion that the artist singing had injected into her words, and I began to strip off my clothing. I cringed at the metal to metal sound of the faucet as I turned the water to a perfect mixture of hot and cold, though I knew by the end of the shower the water would be so hot that steam would be erupting from the room when I opened the door. I placed a towel on the towel rack and stepped into the tub, closing the shower curtain behind me.

I leaned down, pulling up the mechanism that turned the shower on. I immediately stepped back, not letting the initial water that flowed from the shower head hit me, it was something I had always done, when I was a child it was a game that I played, to see which was faster, me or the water. I smiled at the memory, and stepped into the water, the warmth of it making me shiver off the last of the cold that was left in me, and letting me relax. That's when the flood of tears hit, every time. I didn't like people to see me cry, that wasn't my sort of thing. And when you're soaked from head to toe, you couldn't even really tell if you're crying, unless you make it to the point where you sob uncontrollably. Shower time was the times where I could really let it all out without worrying everyone else around me. I reached behind me, making the heat that much more intense. The heat relaxed my muscles a little more and soon I found myself sitting in the floor of the shower. Sometimes when I showered, and a lot had been going on, I would just sit there, and contemplate my life up to that point.

After what seems like forever I manage to get up off the bathtub floor, and grab my shampoo. I squirt some into my hand and run my fingers through my hair quickly, then use both of my hands to make the soap lather up and do its job. After I finished with that I tilted my head back into the almost scorching hot water and let it rinse the shampoo from my hair, I ran my right hand through it just to help the process along slightly. I then reached for my bottle of conditioner and applied it to the tips of my hair, like my mom had taught me. Her best friend was a hair dresser, and she had always told me that the conditioner on your roots made your hair really greasy, so just putting it on your tips keeps your hair healthy and less greasy. A winning situation either way you look at it. The soap was next, because while I let the conditioner set it, I liked to get other things done, it was a lot better than just letting it sit there doing nothing. I thoroughly washed my body with the bar, making sure to get every crevice of myself with it. I sighed and repeated the process of washing my hair out. When I finally finished I found myself back on the floor of the tub, just thinking everything through. I ran my fingers through my hair, and contemplated some more, thinking over just the last couple of weeks. All the events and craziness, along with all the change that had happened. It was all so much all at the same time. I sighed and tilted my head downward, letting the water hit the back of my head.

I bit my lip and let my mind wander about aimlessly. Just sitting there as the shower pelted me with the steaming water. I don't know how long I had sat there, all I know is that by the time I was up the water had run cold. I turned off the shower first, then the running water, sliding the shower curtain open. Then I yanked the towel from the towel rack, pulling it directly to my face to dry off.

After I was dry and dressed I looked into the mirror, and brushed my hair out, making sure that there would be no tangles when it finally dried. I walked in slow deliberate steps toward my room and grabbed some socks from the top drawer of my dresser and grabbed my black canvas hi-tops from the floor next to it. I pulled those two items on, and then tied my shoes tightly heading out my bedroom door and down to the kitchen where my car keys were. I grabbed them and was out the door quickly and straight into my car. I pressed the garage button and waited for it to open before I backed out and closed it, heading to the mall to meet Riku and Yuffie. The music from my radio combined with the wind flowing from my open window was oddly calming in combination. To be perfectly honest, ever since my parent's accident, I have had my qualms about driving, because what happened to them, could just as easily happen to me. That in itself is a horrible though, but to actually have dreams that it was me instead of them, that's a nightmare.

Sometimes I blame myself too, like I should have known something was up when I hadn't heard from either one of them. They usually kept me updated with those kinds of things. I shook my head, because I knew it wasn't my fault. It was the drunk driver that hit them, going fifty miles an hour in a thirty-five zone… He's damn lucky he died on impact too, because he would have spent his life in jail. I growled under my breath. I didn't understand people and their stupidity, they don't realize how much their bad choices affect other people. Like a rock being thrown into a lake, there is always an outward ripple.

Then again, where did I have the room to talk? I make bad choices all the time, not even really thinking about them. Human nature often leads us to make many mistakes, and bad choices. I wonder though… if he had lived, would he have regretted killing two people because he decided that wherever he was going was too important than the lives of the people around him. I would never be able to live with the guilt of having two innocent peoples' blood on my hands. I wouldn't be able to cope with the thought that I had ripped someone's children or parents away from them in my recklessness.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I pulled into the mall, smiling a bit when I saw Yuffie at the entrance waving her arms around like an idiot with a big grin on her face. I waved back and hopped out of my car, walking up toward them, smiling as brightly as possible. She ran the distance in between us and pulled me into one of her giant hugs, giggling like a child who had eaten too much sugar. Her giggle was infectious, because I couldn't help but chuckle with her. Riku walked over to us, slowly and almost awkwardly wrapped his arms around the both of us. My friends, I was lucky to have them, they have been like family since we all grouped together, and they were my comfort in these horrible times.

"Okay, okay, enough of this mushy stuff." Riku said with a small smirk on his face. I couldn't help but roll my eyes, leave it to Riku to ruin a moment.

"Ah shut up Riku, we can't help that we like hugs!" Yuffie said jabbing him in the side with her elbow. He immediately grabbed her into a headlock and ruffled her hair. "Hey!" She complained, squirming in his grasp trying to get free. I broke into laughter watching them pick at each other. It was proof, in a way, that we had become a family over the years that our friendship stood, and at that moment, I knew that they would be around for a while.


End file.
